Linnéa Petra Sofie Claeson (born 31 January 1992) is a

human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campai ...

and law student, known for her

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

and trademark multi-coloured hair, which has earned her the nickname "rainbow warrior". She is also a former Swedish professional

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

player, active from 2013 to 2017, who played for

Ringkøbing Håndbold Ringkøbing Håndbold (Ringkøbing Handball) is a Danish handball club from Ringkøbing. In the season 2023/24 the club played in the Danish Women's Handball League. When they played in the Danish 1st division, they reached the promotion play ...

. Claeson was born in

Norrköping Norrköping ( , ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Lin ...

on 31 January 1992. During and since her sporting career, she speaks and writes about

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, an ...

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

and

LGBTQI LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group is ...

rights. She has co-founded several

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an ideology centered on the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotiona ...

organisations, including Omtanke Stockholm, supporting

homeless people Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

, Kvinna till Kvinna, supporting women in war and

conflict zone War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organize ...

s, and Refugee Relief. She founded @assholesonline on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

, which had over 200,000 followers by early 2018, in order to counteract the vitriol that she had had directed towards her, even as a

teenager Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated wi ...

. She posted some of the

misogynistic Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practis ...

messages she had received, and included her own witty responses to them. (Later on some of them were revealed to be falsely fabricated and staged, thus was she accused of exploiting true victims of sexual abuse.) This earned her the UN Association of Sweden's Human Rights Prize, and she was also voted "Lawyer of the Year" by readers of '' Dagens Juridik''. The accolades brought another torrent of abuse directed at her on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. The # jagärhär (#iamhere) Facebook group countered the abuse by posting congratulatory comments and praise for her courage in standing up to the abuse. She participated as a celebrity dancer in Let's Dance 2019, which was broadcast on TV4.

References

External links

* 1992 births Living people Sportspeople from Norrköping Swedish female handball players Swedish human rights activists Swedish feminists Swedish expatriate handball players in Denmark 21st-century Swedish sportswomen {{Sweden-handball-bio-stub